t in mudsills,
and the boxes or troughs rest in brackets four feet apart. These again
rest upon substantial stringers. The grade of the flume is from 1,600 to
2,000 feet from top to bottom--a distance, as previously stated, of
fifteen miles. The sharpest fall is three feet in six. There are two
reservoirs from which the flume is fed. One is 1,100 feet long and the
other is 600 feet. A ditch, nearly two miles long, takes the water to
the first reservoir, whence it is conveyed 3-1/4 miles to the flume
through a feeder capable of carrying 450 inches of water. The whole
flume was built in ten weeks. In that time all the trestle-work,
stringers and boxes were put in place. About 200 men were employed on it
at one time, being divided into four gangs. It required 2,000,000 feet
of lumber, but the item which astonished me most was that there were 28
tons, or 56,000 pounds of nails used in the construction of this flume.

Mr. Flood and Mr. Fair had arranged for a ride in the flume, and I was
challenged to go with them. Indeed the proposition was put in this
way--they dared me to go. I thought that if men worth twenty-five or
thirty million dollars apiece could afford to risk their lives, I could
afford to risk mine, which isn't worth half as much. So I accepted the
challenge, and two 'boats' were ordered. These were nothing more than
pig troughs, with one end knocked out. The 'boat' is built like the
flume, V shaped, and fits into the flume. The grade of the flume at the
mill is very heavy, and the water rushes through it at railroad speed.
The terrors of that ride can never be blotted from the memory of one of
the party. I cannot give the reader a better idea of a flume ride than
to compare it to sliding down an old-fashioned eve-trough at an angle of
45 degrees, hanging in mid-air without support of roof or house, and
extending a distance of fifteen miles. At the start we went at the rate
of twenty miles an hour, which is a little less than the average speed
of a railroad train. The red-faced carpenter sat in front of our boat on
the bottom as best he could. Mr. Fair sat on a seat behind him, and I
sat behind Mr. Fair in the stern and was of great service to him in
keeping the water which broke over the end-board, from his back. There
was also a great deal of water shipped in the bows of the hog-trough,
and I know Mr. Fair's broad shoulders kept me from more than one ducking
in that memorable trip. At the heaviest grades the wa